Modesto Joins Millions Nationwide in No Kings Protest

A longtime resident driving through Modesto’s Five Points intersection might have thought it was the largest local protest ever. That same motorist might not have realized that the people crowding the sidewalks at Five Points were just a small fraction of the throng that gathered last Saturday in support of the nationwide “No Kings” movement that coincided with Donald Trump’s Washington DC military parade on the same day.

Even two hours after the start of the rally at Graceada Park, people were still streaming onto the sidewalks along Needham Avenue, McHenry Avenue, and J and 17^th Streets. It may indeed have been the largest protest ever in Modesto.

For many people, a march that had originated at the park went no farther than a few steps, simply because the crowd was too thick along the planned route to Five Points. Instead, people stood three or four deep along both sides of Needham Avenue while others formed small groups under the shade of Graceada Park’s majestic oaks. Some retreated to the park gazebo, where the rally originated.

Saturday’s protests were about preserving the fundamental rights of a democratic republic, including due process, the rule of law, civil rights, especially women’s rights, and the right to free and fair elections. For millions of American citizens, these rights are under dire threat from a president who seems determined to make unlawful deportation to modern-day gulags a routine practice.

Likely spurred to even greater participation by the crude tactics of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Los Angeles and southern parts of the San Joaquin Valley, Saturday’s crowd members carried more American flags than usual.

Some of the flags were flown upside down, an internationally known signal of distress. Others were waved as obvious symbols of patriotism by people whose values tend toward liberty and justice for all, rule by law, and the increasingly quaint notion that we’re all innocent until proven guilty.

Woven tightly into the fabric of the American flag itself, these fundamental values, most of which can be subsumed under the notion of “due process,” are under growing threats as government attacks on educational institutions, law firms, political opponents and immigrant laborers have become routine during Donald Trump’s second term.

The June 14 protest occurred under the dark shadow of murder. Two Minnesota lawmakers were killed and two others injured early Saturday morning.

“We are all afraid,” said Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski last April.

“It’s quite a statement. But we are in a time and a place where I certainly have not been here before….I’m oftentimes very anxious myself about using my voice, because retaliation is real. And that’s not right.”

That threat of retaliation may be why so few local politicians, not just in Modesto but nationwide, have stood against Donald Trump’s trampling of the Constitution of the United States. Anyone with even a cursory knowledge of twentieth century history could have predicted there would be soldiers in the streets during Trump’s second administration. Last Saturday, those soldiers weren’t just parading down Constitution Avenue in Washington DC, some were stationed in the City of Los Angeles.

Saturday, the only two local elected officials who spoke at the No Kings rally were Modesto City Councilman Chris Ricci and Waterford City Councilwoman Elizabeth Talbott. Both urged crowd members to get involved in government, either by supporting local candidates or by running for office themselves.

Local government is where democracy begins. Justly fearful of the tyranny of kings and dictators, America’s Founding Fathers also knew that direct democracy too often resulted in mob rule. They designed a system of checks and balances they hoped would mitigate the dangers of government by men instead of by laws. They hoped that in times of the most extreme danger to liberty and justice for all, the people would choose equality under the law before royal edict or mob rule.

Many people today are looking for a leader to stand against a president who would do away with birthright citizenship, due process, and congressional authority. Such a leader may emerge, but only in response to energy sprung from deep devotion to government of, by, and for the people.

Those same people are the last bulwark against dictatorial rule. Saturday, a young man who had wrapped himself in the flag, worn upside down, was asking strangers, “What can I do?”

“Everything’s gone upside down,” he said. “I don’t understand what’s happened. It’s like I’m in a different country.”

Today, America isn’t a “different country,” it’s two countries. One of those countries supports Donald Trump’s claim that the 2020 election was stolen. One does not.

The answer to “What can I do” is, “Seek the truth.”

Choose reason, learning and law over impulse, propaganda, and edict. Defend free and fair elections, peaceful assembly, due process, and the rights of colleges and universities to determine their own curricula and research.

There should be nothing controversial about defending the fundamental values of American government. Those wishing a deeper understanding of where we are today and how we got here need only think deeply about the current relevance of Abraham Lincoln’s words when he wrote,

“How many legs does a dog have when you say his tail is a leg? Four. Saying a tail is a leg doesn’t make it a leg.”

For further guidance, consider also the words of Thomas Jefferson:

“I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country.”

If the dangers of the influence of money on government and saying a tail is a leg sound familiar, it’s because lies and the corruptions of wealth have been fatal to justice long before the birth of our democratic republic. The truth may be elusive, but it’s still the only path to freedom. Seek it out. Be brave.